Accrington Stanley
Also written as Accrington.
The club
The current Accrington Stanley were founded in October 1968, two years after the original club of that name, formed in 1891, was wound up. The two are separate legal entities and the modern club's record book begins in 1968. They play at the Crown Ground in Accrington, Lancashire, known through sponsorship as the Wham Stadium, which holds 5,450 of whom 3,100 are seated. The club are the Reds, or the Owd Reds, and play in red shirts, red shorts and red socks. The owner is Andy Holt.
Recent seasons
Accrington spent four of the last seven seasons in League One. They finished 17th on 40 points in the curtailed 2019/20 campaign, 11th on 67 points in 2020/21 and 12th on 61 in 2021/22, before finishing 23rd of 24 on 44 points in 2022/23 and going down. That relegation season was also their best cup season in years: a run to the fourth round of the FA Cup and the semi-finals of the EFL Trophy.
Since then they have been a League Two club. They were 17th on 57 points in 2023/24, 21st on 50 points in 2024/25, a season in which they reached the FA Cup third round, and 16th in 2025/26 with 53 points from 46 games, 14 wins, 11 draws and 21 defeats, scoring 47 and conceding 58. That was a mid-table finish achieved with the division's fourth-lowest goals-for tally among clubs above the relegation places. 2026/27 is a fourth consecutive League Two season.
Honours and landmarks
The club's honours are all from the lower reaches. They won League Two in 2017/18, which remains their only Football League title. They won the Conference, the fifth tier, in 2005/06, which took them back into the Football League 44 years after the original club resigned from it. Before that they won the Northern Premier League in 2002/03 and its First Division in 1999/2000, and the Lancashire Combination in 1973/74 and 1977/78. Record attendance, record win and record defeat for the current club were not established from the sources consulted; the club does not publish a records page and the Wikipedia article carries no records table.
Notable scorelines
No record win or record defeat is published for the post-1968 club in the sources read, and none is asserted here. The results a writer can use are recent ones: the EFL Trophy run of 2022/23, which took Accrington to the semi-finals, and the FA Cup fourth round in the same season. In pre-season 2026 Stanley went unbeaten, drawing 0-0 with Championship neighbours Blackburn Rovers, then beating Bradford City 1-0, Chorley 3-0 and Bury 1-0.
Head-to-head notes
No published all-time head-to-head record was established against any 2026/27 League Two club, and none is asserted. What is on record is last season's table. Accrington finished 16th in 2025/26, above Gillingham on goal difference and above Cheltenham Town, Shrewsbury Town, Newport County, Tranmere Rovers and Crawley Town; below Fleetwood Town, Bristol Rovers, Walsall, Colchester United, Crewe Alexandra, Oldham Athletic, Swindon Town, Barnet, Grimsby Town, Chesterfield and Salford City. Rotherham United, Port Vale and York City come into the division from elsewhere and no recent league record against them was established. The EFL Cup first-round tie is against Crewe Alexandra, who finished 11th last season, eleven places and fourteen points above Stanley.
Right now (2026/27)
John Doolan is the manager, appointed in March 2024 and now in his third season. Recruitment has been from the National League and from clubs immediately around them rather than from above. Defenders Joe Anderson, free from Barrow, and Tom Moore, from Southport, both signed on 1 July, as did attacking midfielder Stefan Mols from Tamworth, who scored 11 goals in the National League in 2025/26. Striker Cole Stockton joined from Salford City on 9 July and left-back David Tutonda from Rochdale on 16 July. Goalkeeper Louie Moulden arrived on loan from Norwich City on 30 June.
The club also kept most of its spine. Seamus Conneely, Liam Coyle, Conor Grant, Kelsey Mooney, Connor O'Brien, Anjola Popoola and goalkeeper James Rogerson all signed new terms, and Shaun Whalley, the side's leading creator, extended for a further year in May 2026. The releases were Charlie Hall, Michael Kelly, Dan Martin and Finlay Tunstall.
The season starts later than in Scotland. The EFL Cup first round tie with Crewe Alexandra falls in the window of 7 to 9 August 2026. Accrington are in EFL Trophy Group A alongside Salford City, Sheffield Wednesday and Sunderland Under-21s. The League Two campaign opens at home to Colchester United on 15 August 2026, the opening day of the division.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accrington_Stanley_F.C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Accrington_Stanley_F.C._seasons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Accrington_Stanley_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Accrington_Stanley_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_EFL_League_Two https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_EFL_League_Two https://www.accringtonstanley.co.uk/
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.